Pumpkin
by ardavenport
Summary: How to get a fireman who saves you from a burning building. A woman's campaign for Johnny Gage.
1. Chapter 1

**PUMPKIN**

by ardavenport

**- - - Part 1**

There was smoke in the stairwell.

They went in anyway, coughing, going down the dingy narrow stairs. There wasn't any other way. Louise wouldn't risk getting trapped in that small and very old elevator. And weren't you supposed to not use elevators if there was a fire?

But as they passed the fourth floor landing, they heard the ominous sounds of crackling, fire consuming the building under them, and they coughed more from thicker puffs of smoke rising from below. Louise peered down and saw a yellow flicker.

Doris screamed, whirled around and fell on the stairs, one flailing hand grabbing the railing, but still clutching her big green cloth purse. Coughing harder, her eyes tearing, Louise pushed the strap of her own small handbag up over her shoulder as far as it would go and took Doris's arm. They climbed back up to the fourth floor landing; Doris screamed, hacking and coughing every step.

Louise opened the door and dragged Doris into the hallway. It was silent, except for their coughing. There hadn't been a tenant on the fourth floor for over a year. Closed doors with old names on the frosted glass windows of the offices. Their was a haze of smoke in the air, but no obvious source for it. Charred wood and rubber and stone.

"What are we going to do?! What are we going to do?!"

Louise tugged on a door. Locked. "Shut up and find one that's open!"

"We can't get down through any of these! That's the only stairway!" Doris panicked and shrieked in place. "We're going to burn up in this crummy building!"

Getting angry, Louise kept tugging on doors. "You will if you just stand there like an idiot! Now help me with this!" How could her co-worker and roommate fall apart so completely? Become that useless dumb blond that she could so easily pretend to be?

They moved down the hallway, door to door, Doris with more and more panicked squeals as she tugged on the doorknobs. When they got to the big double doors at the end, those were locked, too. Doris shrieked and pounded on the barrier with her fists.

"Let us out! Let us out! Somebody help us!"

Nothing was open.

Louise could see daylight through the frosted glass of the doors on the left side. Those faced outward toward the street. She picked up a metal trash can in the hall and slammed it against the door pane. It didn't go through. Didn't even crack it. Her heart pounding, she slammed it harder. The glass shattered on the third blow and she flinched from the flying shards.

Doris shrieked.

Reaching past the jagged glass, Louise turned the inside lock. "Get in here!"

"It's on fire! It's on fire!" She pointed frantically, hopping in place. Louise looked.

Smoke billowed out from under the stairwell door. And flames at the corners. Suddenly the jokes about their office being a fire trap were not so funny.

"Come on!" Louise dragged her friend through the empty outer office to the inner one and slammed the door behind them. She rushed to the window. She pushed upward, opening it. The building was old, with old fashioned stone ledges. She heard sirens outside.

"We can't go out there! We can't go out there! We'll fall!"

"We can't stay here!" She tried to catch Doris's flailing arms. Did people really do this when they panicked? Then she grabbed her scarf, tearing it off her neck.

"Don't look!" she shouted, tying the scarf around the other woman's head.

"Ow!" Doris tried to pull out her blond hair, caught in the knot.

Louise grabbed her arm, dragged her to the window and climbed up on the sill, the peeling paint and splintered wood digging into her legs. Her handbag slid down of her shoulder and she pushed it back out of the way again. She heard sirens down below. The ledge was wide, but the street was still four stories down.

"Give me your hand!"

"I can't! I can't!"

Louise crouched, arm out; her hand clinched on Dori's shoulder. She cried and repeated, "I can't! I can't" as Louise dragged her up. Her knees were bloody, her hands scraped from the fall in the stairwell. Those stupid two-inch heels. But there was no way to get them off now. And Doris still wouldn't let go of her huge purse. Heaven forbid that Doris Hanover should go anywhere - - even to flee for her life - - without her makeup. Louise stood, hugging the stone facade of the building and pulling Doris up with her.

"YOU ON THE LEDGE! STAY INSIDE! CLOSE THE DOOR! WE'RE SENDING HELP UP TO YOU!" A man's amplified voice came from below. But Louise could see smoke coming in through the broken frosted glass of the door now. How did the fire get there so _fast_??? It would come in right after them.

"Come on!" Louise inched along on the ledge, her hand still clamped to Doris's wrist.

"I can't! I can't"

Hugging the wall, the fingers of her free hand digging in between the gray blocks of the building facade, she inched away from the window.

"I can't! I can't!"

"YOU ON THE LEDGE! PLEASE, STAY WHERE YOU ARE! WE'RE SENDING HELP UP TO YOU NOW!"

Louise stopped. Doris shrieked.

"Please! HELP US! HELP US!"

Her screams dissolved in a coughing fit and Louise felt her own horror that Doris might lose her balance and fall off the building. Keeping close to the outer wall, she carefully turned around. Her fingers dug into the hard stone as her own coughing fit came out.

Red fire trucks, hoses, running men. Streams of water sprayed upward from below the shear drop over the ledge. A platform with firemen on it rose on the end of a long arm extended from one of the trucks, the machinery of it groaning louder as it came up to them.

Doris cried and coughed, sobbing loudly for help.

The tops of the two firemens' helmets came up level with the ledge, then the rest of them, leaning forward on the railing of the platform.

"You're going to be okay, just stay calm. We're going to get you down, but you have to stay calm." The fireman with the darker hair under his black helmet held his hand out to them.

"Please! Help us! Please, please, I don't want to fall!"

"You're not going to fall. Now just stay calm." The platform had risen level with the ledge, closer to Doris. The dark-haired fireman reached out to her, but the other one looked at Louise. He had blue eyes.

"It's okay. You're doing real well. We'll get you down in a minute." Louise clinched her teeth and nodded, but the other fireman was having trouble with Doris. She didn't fight him, but she wasn't helping either.

"No, I can't! I can't! We''ll fall!"

"Now just calm down! Calm down! You're not going to fall!" He leaned over the railing of the platform and grasped her shoulders. "Now just come toward me. Come toward me." Doris whimpered but she let him pull her away from the wall.

"You're gonna be all right now. You're gonna be all right. I'm just going to lift you up toward me." He got his arms around her waist.

"Aaaaaaaaiiiiiii!!" She screamed when he lifted her and quickly swung her around inside the railing. The other fireman helped and she latched onto him, crying.

"It's all right. We'll have you down from here in minute." The blue-eyed fireman put an arm around Doris while the other one turned to her. Louise started to inch toward him on the ledge.

"Don't move." He stuck his arm out toward her, palm out. "We'll come to you." He waved a signal down to the truck below where the fire and the spraying water was still going on in the shadow of the buildings. The truck motor growled.

"Now don't look down!"

Louise pressed herself back against the building and then turned her head to the side. Flames and smoke were coming out of the window that she and Doris had climbed out of.

"Should I look there instead?"

He half smiled back. "Just look at me." He reached out to her. "Now, just come to me. You're gonna be all right." She looked at him. He was young, but not a kid. He had a long face and brown eyes.

His hands came around her waist as he leaned toward her. She put her hands on his shoulders. She picked up her legs as he lifted her up over the railing.

"There we go. Now we're going to get you down right away."

Louise grabbed him when she felt the platform jolt under her.

"Now it's all right, we're taking you down right now."

The platform descended, but she didn't let go of him, her head pressed against the heavy canvas coat. He was thin and tall, she could tell that much through his protective clothing.

"You're going to be all right. We'll be down in a minute." He laid his hands on her shoulders without putting his arms around her. Louise coughed and trembled. Did people really do that when they were afraid? Doris clung to the other fireman; the volume of her crying had gone down a lot and she'd pulled the scarf off her face.

"Now, see? We're down." She looked around. They were just above the street. They took out a middle bar from the platform so they could get out underneath the railing and there were more firemen to help her and Doris down to the street. The pavement was wet but solid under her feet and they had to pick their way across lines of hoses lying across it.

"Now we're just going to sit down right over here." The tall, thin fireman with Louise spoke over her head. They were led to the back of a small red fire vehicle and sat down on the tail board.

"I'm Fireman-Paramedic John Gage and this is my partner Roy DeSoto. We're just going to check you out." Both firemen took off their helmets and heavy coats. They wore short sleeve blue uniform shirts, silver badges, name tags.

"I'm - - " she covered her mouth to keep from coughing in John Gage's face " - - Louise Gorhan and this is - - " cough, cough " - - Doris Hanover." Cough.

John Gage wasn't skinny. He was tall and slender and tanned. And he had thick dark hair, mostly black with dark brown highlights in the sunlight. He brought her a tank and a mask.

"Now breathe into this." He put a huge black mask on her face. It was connected to a hose and a big tank. Next to them, the other fireman tended to Doris who breathed and coughed into a second mask.

"These don't look too bad, but you should have them looked at, at the hospital." He swabbed the blood that had run down from Doris's bruised and scraped knees. But that fireman didn't know Doris. Anything that kept her from wearing a mini-skirt or bikini was a major disaster. She was going to have to wear slacks for weeks now.

Louise jumped.

"It's okay, it's okay. I'm just taking your pulse." John Gage bowed his head and looked down at his watch. He had very nice thick hair, a little long but perfect for him. She wanted to touch it. She looked down at where he touched her. He had nice hands. And no wedding ring.

He dropped his hand from her. With a ripping sound he took out a thick fabric strip and pushed the short sleeve of her dress back.

"Now, I'm just going to take your blood pressure here."

She nodded, still breathing into the mask that she held over her nose and mouth. She averted her eyes, glad that her face was covered and wouldn't give away what she was thinking, how nice it would be for him to put his arms around her now that he wasn't wearing a heavy canvas coat and they weren't four stories above the street.

The band inflated very tightly on her upper arm and, head bowed again, he listened to the pounding vein in her arm with a stethoscope. She clinched the fist of her free hand. If she reached over and touched his hair he would just look up at her like she was a freak and she couldn't bear that.

He finished. Wrote numbers down on a little pad with a green pen from his front pocket. Then he opened a red case on the ground while the other fireman reached across for the blood pressure thing.

"Rampart this is Squad Fifty-One, how do you read?" John Gage spoke into a telephone receiver.

A woman's voice answered and he read the numbers to her. And then the numbers that Roy DeSoto got for Doris. Louise wished there were some other reason for John Gage to touch her again. But she knew there wasn't. A man's voice spoke out of the radio in the red case.

Louise squinted up at their old office building. There was less fire and more smoke. Firemen with hoses poured water down into the fifth floor windows from the platform crane. Smoke poured out of the top of the building but there was no fire coming from the sixth, top floor, where their offices were. Had been.

"Now, you both look fine, but you really should go to the hospital so the doctors can check you out, just to be sure." Roy DeSoto put things back in a black box as he spoke to Doris. A man's outraged voice startled them all.

"Oh no! Oh no, no, no!!"

Uncle Floyd had finally gotten back from lunch.

He ran right past where they were, stumbled over the fire hoses and turned around in circles a few time. Short and balding, wearing a cheap gray suit, shirt and tie, he accosted a fireman who looked like he was in charge. Louise couldn't hear what was being said over the noise of the fire trucks and men running around and hoses, but Uncle Floyd was red in the face and started flapping his arms. A policeman came over.

"I can't believe this!" Uncle Floyd tore his arm away from the policeman who led him away from the firemen. The two paramedics scowled in his direction as he came running up to them.

"Louise! What happened?! What's going on?! I go out for a short lunch and I come back to this!"

Uncle Floyd always took a two-hour lunch at Milligan's. With a beer or two.

"And now everything's gone up in smoke?!"

John Gage stood up. "Sir, Sir? Do you know them? Are you a friend?" He tried to block Uncle Floyd without actually touching him.

"A friend?! A friend?! She's my niece! She's supposed to be my office manager! While my whole business is burning down!" Uncle Floyd raved and flapped; his comb-over had come completely unglued.

First Doris, now Floyd. Hysteria all around. Louise threw the mask down and marched right up to her uncle. "Well, what do you expect, renting in that cheap flop house?! I'm surprised it didn't burn down before now!"

Floyd sputtered, his come-over fluttering. His shirt collar and tie were loose and he had a brown stain on his jacket lapel. "Well, did you save anything?! How am I supposed to run a business this way with smoke," he waved an arm skyward, "smoke coming out of the windows!"

"We've got copies of everything at the warehouse!"

Louise had nagged Floyd for months about keeping back-up copies of their books, the orders, the customers, the shipping, the vendors. He wouldn't buy a xerox machine (they were so expensive, Louise cringed when she saw the price, not to mention the maintenance fees) but there were printing shops who would make copies. Expensive, but worth it. But now she was too angry at him for a good 'I told you so.'

"What?! We can't have everything at the warehouse! We can't do business from a warehouse!"

"Uh?"

They looked. Roy DeSoto had raised a hand. Next to him, Doris, an oxygen mask still on her face, held up their address card box and green appointment book from her purse.

"Yes!"

Uncle Floyd ran to her and ripped them out of her hands. He muttered, thumbing furiously through the pages of the book.

"Now, Louise we've got to start calling - - "

"We're not calling anyone! Doris and I are going to the hospital! And you are going to come pick us up when we're done!"

"Hospital, hospital? What? Are you hurt? You don't look hurt? What hospital? Do I have to call your mother?"

Thank-you Uncle Floyd for noticing.

Roy DeSoto approached cautiously. "They're fine. But the doctors should look them over, just to be sure."

"Oh, oh, oh." Somewhat deflated, Uncle Floyd's head looked back and forth between DeSoto and Louise. "Oh, all right. You go then. I'll take care of this. As long as I don't have to call your mother." He started thumbing through the book again.

"Fine." Louise did not want to call her mother either. Next to her, John Gage still cringed back as if she was on fire. She clinched her teeth, her shoulders hunched. "Sorry."

"It's all right." Roy DeSoto extended his arm toward two ambulance attendants in white pants and shirts.

This was it. They were done. DeSoto helped Doris up and she and Louise went with the attendants. One of them helped Doris up first.

"Do you think your uncle is going to remember to pick us up?"

Louise looked back, leaning to the side to try and see around the red fire vehicle for one last glimpse of John Gage.

"I'll call him at the warehouse from the hospital."

**- - - End Part 1**


	2. Chapter 2

**PUMPKIN**

by ardavenport

**- - - Part 2**

Louise wondered why they called it an emergency room - - there was more waiting than emergency going on. They'd arrived in an ambulance, but since they were both walking they were ushered to a set of plastic chairs. An admissions nurse behind a desk gave them forms to fill out. When they were done she told them to wait. There were two old ladies, a man in grimy coveralls holding his arm and a kid with bad skin reading a paperback book sitting in the plastic chairs, too.

Doris finally got to go first. Louise supposed that the bloody bandages on her legs made her look more serious. As soon as she was gone there was one moment of excitement when she saw John Gage again. He came striding in with a man on a gurney and then immediately went away down the hall. He disappeared into a room, pushing the gurney in with a nurse and a doctor. Louise asked a nurse passing by what had happened. A fireman had been injured. It must have happened at the building after they left.

Soon after, Doris came out and Louise got to have her turn with a terse young black doctor who listened to her breathing. She coughed when he asked, stethoscope on her back. That and her blood pressure did not get him interested. He told her that she didn't have anything to worry about, but if she wasn't feeling well she should see her own physician or come back to them. Then he left and the nurse ushered her out into the hallway.

Louise looked right, then left. No John Gage. She went to the ladies room.

Doris was still there. 'Putting her face on' as she always called it. Louise went to the toilet and after that the sink. She saw her white blouse was smudged gray and a thin film of soot on her face when she was washing her hands. But there was only strong hospital soap and coarse paper towels to wash with. They worked well enough to get her face pink and scrubbed. Her plain brown hair remained messy and frizzy at the ends, a few locks damp and clinging to her forehead.

"You should carry a bigger purse. Have something to fix your face up with."

Louise scowled. She didn't usually wear makeup, certainly not for working in the office at her uncle's import business. Then she pouted.

"Thanks for grabbing the appointment book and the address file. I didn't even think of them. I only grabbed my own purse when I saw you get yours." She adjusted the shoulder strap of her own small purse.

Doris pulled back her rouge brush, lowering her heavily mascaraed eyes. "Yeah, well. . . . . thanks for getting us out of that building. I'm afraid of fire. And heights." She actually looked embarrassed. Louise hadn't thought that was possible, for her co-worker to be embarrassed about anything.

"Isn't everybody?" They looked back at each other in the mirror over the row of sinks.

Doris went back to touching up her cheeks. "Well, you sure aren't from what I could see."

"Oh, I was scared. I was shaking and hanging onto that fireman all the way down."

Doris smiled, put the rouge away and picked up a lipstick. "Yeah, that almost made it worth it. Getting rescued by big strong firemen. Almost."

"Yeah." Louise smiled, remembering the feel of her arms around that canvas coat. And imagining how much nicer it would be without it.

Two nurses came into the restroom. Louise brushed her hair back.

"I'm going to go call Uncle Floyd. Make sure he knows what hospital we're at."

"Okay." Doris painted the lipstick on without looking away from her reflection.

Back in the waiting room, Doris had to wait until a lady got off the pay phone. And then when called she had to remind Uncle Floyd at the warehouse that he still needed to pick them up. He had been calling customers and suppliers to reassure them that AzaMex Inports was still in business. He grudgingly said that he would be there in twenty minutes. But only so they could help him with the calls and setting up a temporary office at the warehouse. Disgusted, she hung up.

"Well, hi there!"

She turned toward the sound of Doris's cheerful greeting.

There they were. The two paramedics in the hallway. John Gage, smiling back at Doris. Louise went to them.

"Well, hi there." John Gage had a big broad smile. Very nice. "You're looking a lot better. They must be treating you right here."

"That's nice of you to say." Doris tilted her head coyly. "But I'm still a mess." Her make-up had been restored and her blond hair patted back into place, but her short, sleeveless blue and yellow dress was smudged just as much Louise's blouse and pleated skirt. But it still looked nicer. Clothes always looked nicer on Doris. And John Gage obviously noticed; he didn't look at Louise at all.

"Oh, you don't look so bad. Not bad at all." He kept grinning. But next to him Roy DeSoto kept his mouth shut and looked a little bored, obviously not interested.

"After that fall in the stairway when we were trying to get out? With these bruises on my legs, I won't be able to wear a bikini for a month at least. I'll have to wear pants to cover them up."

"A bikini? Oooh, I'll bet you look real nice in that."

Doris reached inside her purse and Louise's heart sank. She took out a piece of paper with her name and number on it. Doris was always ready for a quick pick up. She handed it to him.

"Well, maybe that could be arranged sometime. Maybe you and Roy could make it for a double date, sometime."

Louise's mouth opened in surprise. What? No. Not THAT one. The OTHER one. I WANT HIM. The one you're giving your number to. OUR number to.

Roy shrugged. "I don't think my wife can make it."

Immediately Louise looked, but she didn't see a ring on his left hand. Why wouldn't he wear a wedding ring if he was married? Were firemen not allowed to wear rings?

John Gage looked at the piece of paper like it was a surprise bonus and then down at where Doris touched his arm. Doris could touch him; she could probably touch his hair and he'd just grin stupidly like he was now. How did she get away with that? Nobody ever thought she was a freak.

Roy DeSoto tugged on his other arm. "Come on."

"Huh?"

"Come on, Johnny." DeSoto dragged him off toward the emergency entrance. Louise could see the small red fire vehicle parked in the lot beyond it.

"Bye Johnny." Doris waved.

"Oh, ah, bye!" He gave her one last big smile before stumbling into step with DeSoto. "Will you quit it . . . . "

Then they were gone. Again.

Louise felt like crying. How did Doris get away with that?

**- - - End Part 2**


	3. Chapter 3

**PUMPKIN**

by ardavenport

**- - - Part 3**

The next day Uncle Floyd called Louise and Doris early and got them up to help look for a new office. He moaned and groaned about the losses. They had most of their records, but all the samples, the catalogues, the supplier indexes, the business directories and a lot of other things were gone. Doris called about new office space, Louise inventoried their losses and what they still had. And Floyd complained about everything and called salvage companies about recovering anything from their old building. Anything that didn't burn would be hopelessly smoke damaged. If anyone at all was allowed in the building before it was demolished.

They weren't done for the day until after seven and there was no time to do anything more for dinner than open a can of soup and throw together a salad. The phone rang as Louise was putting out some bowls. She picked it up.

"Hi, is Doris there?"

Louise immediately felt sick. It was John Gage. Asking for Doris.

As soon Doris got it, Louise went to get the glasses and spoons, but there was no escaping the sound of her flirting, calling him 'Johnny' and making a date with him. For the next night.

This happened a lot. Doris going out on a date and Louise staying at home. It didn't really bother her. Louise wouldn't give a second look at most of the vain swinger types that Doris liked to go out with. But not this time.

Louise kept her mouth shut about it, but Doris asked what was bothering her when they finished eating. Louise told her and predictably got the same answer she always got whenever she said anything about the drastic difference in their social activities.

"Well, if you put even a little effort into your appearance then you might get men to look at you. I mean you're not ugly. And you're not fat. You don't look half bad, but no one would know it by how you slouch around in those clumpy shoes and those plain skirts all the time."

Louise was not in the mood for the same old shallow advice she got every time this came up. "So, I'm supposed to dress like a fashion model just to go work for my uncle?"

Doris got up a half hour earlier than Louise did, just to do her hair. And their shared bathroom was cluttered with bottles and tubes of beauty products - - half of which only got used once - - not to mention all the clothes and shoes and spa visits and beauty parlor appointments. No wonder she needed men to buy her dinner. She never had any money left over from all that.

Their argument was short with the usual snippy remarks about blond bimbos and old maids. They left the dishes in the sink, neither one of them was interested in cleaning up.

They went to work early again, in silence, and continued re-establishing Uncle Floyd's import business. Around lunchtime they got a call from the accountant on the first floor of their old building and Uncle Floyd immediately agreed to share temporary office space with him in a strip mall. Both Louise and Doris groaned; they had been hoping that he would settle for using the warehouse, but Uncle Floyd had a fixation about working from a 'real' office. Now they had the work of moving along with all the other stuff. But at six-thirty Doris's dinner date came by. Louise made sure that she was in the back then. She did not need to see John Gage picking up her over-dressed, bottle-blond roommate for a date.

When she got home, she thought about making cookies, but she was too depressed for anything more than watching TV. She didn't expect to hear Doris get back before she went to bed.

So, it was a major shock to her when Doris came in at ten-fifteen.

"You want him, you can have him." Doris threw her red purse on the sofa and sat down in the matching brown chair next to it. She kicked off her red heels and took off her white cashmere sweater. Under that, she had on a short blue, red, pink and purple flowered dress.

"What?" Louise stared back. The only time Doris came back from a date before midnight was when . . . .

. . . . it was bad.

"What happened?"

Doris rolled her eyes and threw her head back and started in on everything bad about Johnny Gage.

The first thing was his car. It was an unwashed off-white box that might have been suitable for an African safari, but hardly for taking a girl out in. Then, there was the dinner.

"He took me to a chili dog stand."

"Oh." Even with her limited dating experience, Louise knew that this was a bad sign. Even the cheap accountant they were now sharing office space with had done better the couple of times she'd gone out with him. "Well, firemen don't make a lot of money."

That was hardly an excuse by Doris's standards. If a man couldn't come up with the money to impress a girl he had no business asking her out. No excuses.

The dinner conversation had been marginal at best. Doris had not been interested in hearing his bragging about his exploits about a firefighter. After that he had fallen back into the usual male stand-by topic, sports.

"Then we had to pick a movie."

About the only thing they could agree on was that neither of them wanted to see 'The Towering Inferno'. But when she suggested 'Blazing Saddles' because she had heard it was funny, she got a twenty minute lecture about how badly represented Indians were in every western ever made. And Johnny Gage hated them all. He was half Indian, which surprised Louise; he certainly didn't look it.

"I tried to drop a few hints that maybe he should move on, but he just didn't get it. I mean I didn't personally massacre all his people and take their land." Doris rolled her eyes again.

They had settled on a thriller called 'The Conversation', but Johnny thought it was boring and didn't get the ending.

"I couldn't believe it. Even I got it. But it just sailed right over his head." She leaned back in the chair and wiggled her toes. "And if he was so bored you would think that he would notice that I was there? When I put my hand on his leg, you know what he did?"

Louise wanted to know, but she didn't want to hear it from Doris. She just shook her head.

"He held it."

"And?"

"And that's it. Some hand holding, and arm over the shoulder and a box of popcorn. That was it." Doris's eyes blazed with anger.

"Well . . . . what's wrong with that?"

"Because when we came out, he told me he thought it was _boring_. And he didn't get the ending."

"Well, so. So, the movie was boring. So."

Doris got up. "Louise, the only reason to go to a boring movie with a date is to make out! That is not the time for a guy to be a perfect gentleman. At least if he'd tried to grope me that might have been interesting! Telling me the movie was boring afterwards was about as good as saying that _I_ was boring. And believe me, _I_ was not the boring person on this date!"

Louise couldn't believe it. _She_ was mad at _him_, just because he thought the movie was boring?

"Not everyone wants to grope in public and go all the way on the first date, Doris!"

"Well, like I said, if you want him, you can have him. Next time he calls, I'll just tell him to talk to you."

Doris picked up her shoes and stalked off to her room. Louise stared after her. She was going to tell him to talk to her . . . . . something wasn't right. She knocked on Doris's door and opened it without waiting.

"Why would he call you if you had such a lousy date? Didn't you just dump him?"

Sitting on the bed, Doris made a sour face, pulling off her pantyhose. "He said he'd call again. I . . . didn't tell him not to."

"You? You just told me you had the worst date in months and you didn't just dump him?" Doris could be ruthless with dates who didn't meet her standards. She worked hard to attract a lot of men, and she did it so naturally; she could afford to be picky.

Surprisingly, there was that hint of embarrassment in her eyes again. "Well . . . . I had a moment of weakness. I started thinking about burning buildings and ledges and . . . . I didn't want to hurt him. Even though he deserved it. I let him have a kiss on the doorstep. And I guess he thinks there's more coming." She got up and put the pantyhose in the hamper. "So, if you want to take him off my hands and let him off easy, you'll be doing me a favor."

"He was here? Out in the hall? Just now?" Louise mouthed the words more than speaking them.

"Yeah. He was out there. And he got a kiss and a hug and he thinks things are great and they're not. So, if you want to ease his future pain, he's all yours."

Louise looked down at herself. Plaid skirt, just above the knees, light blue blouse. Her big sensible, comfortable shoes looked like boats on her feet. "He wouldn't even look at me in the hospital."

"Well, that's not my fault." Doris put her hands on her hips. "I've told you what you need to do. You're just not going to get a man looking like a old school teacher."

Surrounded by the trappings of beauty, Doris's closet full of fashionable clothes and accessories, the large mirrors, jewelry and make-up on the vanity, Louise felt as small and powerless as she had in her father's house. Gritting her teeth, she glared her challenge back at her roommate.

"Then I need help."

**- - - End Part 3**


	4. Chapter 4

**PUMPKIN**

by ardavenport

**- - - Part 4**

John 'Johnny' Gage called the next evening.

Doris put him off with excuses about having to work late and being too tired to go out. It was only a half-truth, but John Gage cheerfully accepted it. He was working the next day anyway.

They were busy; just typing letters and calling people with their new address was taking days. Plus a new inventory, dealing with the insurance company, the hospital bills, assembling a new samples box along will their usual import business work. Floyd was driving all over town, reassuring customers and vendors that they were still operating. But when he was out and when they got off work, Doris and Louise were making plans. And doing some serious shopping.

This was the make-over that was years overdue by Doris's standards. She reminded herself constantly that Louise couldn't help being raised by a mousy mother and an overbearing preacher father, the brother-in-law who Uncle Floyd truly despised. But it was hard. Louise balked and whined about everything. She was as cheap as a miser and Doris knew Floyd paid her more, so she could easily afford it. But she squinted and gasped at every receipt.

The beauty parlor came first with a decent hairstyle. Just cutting the split ends off alone was a huge improvement. And Louise grimaced and squirmed through the first manicure in her life.

Then there was make-up. Louise didn't even know how to wear make-up when she first came to LA. Doris had given her the basics, but Louise stubbornly refused to go beyond that. And she seemed to choose lipstick colors at random. This was her chance to get it right. Mascara did wonders. And matching eye shadow, rouge, lipstick. Doris didn't even suggest jewelry. Louise was protesting enough about the cost of the hair and the clothes. She'd never agree to spending enough to get anything decent. Costume jewelry was just cheap, worse than nothing at all. She would loan Louise a few things for this.

Clothes came next. If Doris had her way, she would rip up every white blouse Louise had. Her roommate was definitely an autumn and white just washed her out. She looked terrific in warm beige or forest green. The green even brought out auburn highlights in her hair and the green tint in her hazel eyes.

The hardest thing was the shoes. A person just couldn't learn how to walk in heels in a week. The best compromise was sandals. Fashionable, but comfortable with low enough heels. It was summer, so there was plenty of time for Louise to learn later. Or not. Doris did not have any counter arguments to Louise's remarks about appropriate accessories for escaping from burning buildings.

Johnny Gage called on his next off day and Doris put him off again. He seemed undaunted. He worked every three days, so she had a little more time to work on Louise. And she now had extra incentive to unload Gage.

His name was Steve. Doris and Louise met him at the lunch place near the new office space that Uncle Floyd agreed to share with the accountant. Tanned, fit and blond, Steve was a trainer at a neighboring gym. He drove a convertible, dressed nicely in white slacks and short sleeved shirts and occasionally traveled with some of his wealthier clients. Louise said she thought he was okay, but when he sat at their table she just silently ate her sandwich and watched them flirt like an observer at a tennis match. Doris didn't say anything about it, but she thought it ridiculous for her to blush. Louise was no innocent virgin, the offense that her pious father had thrown his unmarried daughter out of his house for, over three years ago.

Doris was now very motivated to dump Johnny Gage, And Louise was about as presentable as she was going to be She called him at his fire station during his next shift and told him she could meet him for dinner the next day. Even better, she had a dinner-for two certificate at Red Hat's.

It was a big sacrifice. The dinners had been a gift from one of Uncle Floyd's clients, but he passed on it because he couldn't stomach any 'froo-froo' food. Dinner at Red Hat's would have made a perfect first date with Steve. But Johnny Gage was far more likely to accept the bait-and-switch with Louise if he didn't have to pay for the meal.

Everything looked like a go, except that the closer they got to the time to leave for dinner, the more Louise started to act like she was standing on the ledge of a burning building. She fretted about how she looked, her clothes, what she would say to him.

Doris tried to reassure her. "Believe me, this guy hasn't updated his dating technique since high school. You'll do fine." But when Uncle Floyd drove off, giving Louise a ride to the restaurant to meet him for dinner, she was a nervous wreck. Doris shrugged. She had done everything she could. Tonight, she was going out with Steve.

**- - - End Part 4**


	5. Chapter 5

**PUMPKIN**

by ardavenport

**- - - Part 5**

It could have been worse. Louise sat in the passenger seat as Johnny Gage turned his car onto the freeway on-ramp and accelerated.

"So, what did Steve look like?"

Louise gritted her teeth. "Oh, tall, y'know, blond, broad shoulders. Kind of jock you see on the beach."

"Hmm." Johnny nodded thoughtfully, his eyes still on the road.

Doris had warned her not to say anything. No good could come of it. But Louise couldn't stand the outright lie. She could pretend to be interested in sports, or bowling, or hiking or firefighting. But starting out with the lie that Doris had to go see her sister for a family emergency had been one step too far. Doris didn't even have a sister. Louise had broken down and told him the truth halfway through dinner.

Then she cringed, waiting for the backlash over her grilled, pineapple chicken. But it did not come. At most, Johnny Gage looked a little miffed before he shrugged and said that this was the first time that he'd gotten a free dinner out of being dumped.

She was so relieved that she would have hugged him if there hadn't been a table with a candle on it between them. It was a nice restaurant. She had on a new green dress and a borrowed necklace from Doris. He had on a jacket and tie - - a clip-on tie, but he still looked nice. And then he went back to talking about baseball. And eating. And talking while he was eating. And Louise went back to gritting her teeth about the one flaw that Doris had failed to mention.

He talked with his mouth full.

Most often he would stuff the food in one side and, with one cheek bulging, ask her if she had ever been to Yosemite. If she made the mistake of saying something when he was taking a bite he could put the food in both cheeks to reply, bits of salad sticking between his teeth. Louise had to clamp her mouth shut over saying anything about squirrels storing nuts in their cheeks for the winter because she could not bear to have one of her mother's cliche's pass her lips. He seemed to be quiet expert with combining his eating and talking. She spotted only a couple of bits of shrapnel escaping his lips. But it was still gross.

And sprinkled throughout the conversation would be odd, random questions about Steve. How Doris met him and when. What he did for a living. She would answer and he would 'hmmm' as if he was trying to evaluate how he had gone wrong with Doris. While he was still having dinner with her.

She supposed that it could have been worse. Putting up with a week of Doris's criticism and spending and primping had paid off. Even after he recognized her, and found out that he was getting her instead of Doris for his dinner date, he had smiled broadly and offered his arm. That moment had seemed to make it all worth it. But her heroic Prince Charming had turned into a pumpkin who only knew about sports and camping and burning buildings and expounded on them with food in his mouth.

They were going to go to a late movie - - Louise had gotten only a heartfelt agreement from him when she told him she did not like westerns - - but now she was wondering if she should fake a headache and ask him to take her home. She really did not want to watch him eating popcorn.

The car suddenly slowed down.

"What's that?" Louise saw them passing a white car with tail fins off on the side of the road. And flames in the brush next to it.

Johnny pulled his car over onto the dirt and stopped. He opened his door and jumped out.

"Stay here." He tossed his clip-on tie on the seat and was gone.

He ran toward the car. Through the rear window of his rover she couldn't tell if the car was actually on fire or if the bushes next to it had caught. It had been very dry lately. Johnny ran straight to the car, opened a door and climbed in. But there was a fire. . . . !

Louise heard a siren. Saw a flashing light. It was the highway patrol. The car zoomed to them and stopped. Johnny came out of the car, the flames behind him growing, an older, gray-haired woman's arm over his shoulder. He picked her up and hurried her away from the fire. The cop joined him.

They were parked away from the highway, but Louise looked carefully both ways at the cars whizzing by before opening her door and climbing out. Johnny ran toward his Rover, opened the back, grabbed a couple things and returned to the woman on the ground with the cop. Louise raised a hand and almost offered to help, but the words died in her throat. She did not know how. And she couldn't bear to be in his way. He obviously knew what he was doing and he had the highway patrolman to help.

She turned around. Another siren approached. Red. A fire engine. They passed the police car, turned onto the dirt and stopped. Men in heavy canvas coats and helmets jumped out, grabbed their hoses and attacked the fire. It was getting dark, but there was a light over the freeway nearby. The highway patrolman had set out flares by the side of the road.

Louise walked to the end of Johnny's car to see better, but no further. She saw the white sleeves of the woman's sweater moving. She talked to Johnny and apparently wasn't hurt too badly. Another siren in the distance approached. An ambulance. The fire was almost out when it rolled up. Attendants in white ran around the sides and brought out a stretcher. Then the attendants, Johnny and one of the firemen carried the woman on the stretcher to the ambulance over the rough ground. They took her away. Johnny talked to the firemen for a moment before finally turning back to his car.

He jogged toward her and she felt like she was watching him in slow motion.

Her hero was back. The firefighter who would climb through fire to save her. But she had to do something, anything, to keep him from reverting back into that pumpkin guy who talked with food in his mouth about sports and camping and bowling.

"Uh, sorry you got stuck waiting here for so long. I don't think we can make it to that movie." He really looked sincere. He carried his jacket, wearing his shirt, open at the neck, sleeves pushed back. "But the woman's going to be all right - - "

Louise jumped forward, grabbed him around the neck and pulled him down low enough to kiss. She wasn't a terribly experienced kisser, but she knew a few things. And Doris had given her, her best pointers. After a few seconds of surprise, he seemed to get the message. She loosened her grip, without letting go, enough for him to pull back.

"We can just go to my place. Doris isn't in tonight." Her fingers strayed upward from his neck to his hair, stroking it. He smelled like smoke.

One side of his mouth curved up in a crooked smile. She wasn't sure in the dim light, but he looked a bit cross-eyed, his brown eyes nearly black.

"Well, sure. If that's what you want."

"Yeah." She gave him another kiss. And ignored the chorus of hoots coming from the fire engine.

When he took her back to the front passenger door, he put his arm around her.

**- - - End Part 5**


	6. Chapter 6

**PUMPKIN**

by ardavenport

**- - - Part 6**

It was almost 6 AM. Doris Hanover quietly walked down the half-lit hallway of her apartment building. She had not gotten much sleep the night before. Work would be a big drag today. But it had been worth it. Steve Dzubek was definitely a keeper. Oh, yes he was. She fished her key out of her purse and put it in the lock.

The door pulled away from her.

She stared at the man coming out of her apartment. Johnny Gage stared back, unshaven, his long face slack-jawed in surprise, his black hair messy. His shirt was unbuttoned and he carried a jacket.

SUCCESS! Even if she was tired, Doris decided that it would be a good day at work today after all.

He stupidly kept staring at her, so she slipped past him, but leaned over and pecked a kiss on his cheek.

"Thanks, Johnny."

"Hunh?"

He was clueless.

"Never mind." She eased him out with a gentle push, hand on his arm and a nudge with her hip. "See you later, Johnny." She closed the door.

Alone in the hallway, Johnny Gage stared at the closed door, not sure what had just happened. Oh well. At least it looked like Doris didn't have any hard feelings about him being with her roommate. He shrugged, grinned and strolled down the hall.

He had to go to work.

**- - - END**

**Disclaimer:** All characters belong to Mark VII Productions, Inc., Universal Studios and whoever else owns the 1970's TV show Emergency!; I am just playing in their sandbox.

**Note:** This story was beta-read by kellymutt.


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